roman emperors - who was the most cruel and crazy ?

[caesar44]

tiberius , caius caligula , nero , vitellius , domitianus , commodus , caracalla , heliogabslus or other ?

[The Stranger]

i would say NERO, hands down

[King Henry V]

Caligula was defitinely stark raving bonkers.

[caesar44]

yep
to kill your own mother ? he was cruel (nero)
i voted for domitian because he was not insane when he ordered to kill his cousins , friends etc' he was as bad as a man can be

[Byzantine Prince]

Caligula was absolutely insane and cruel beyond reason. He made a horse a senator!
He made himself a god, he erected temples for himself everywhere, he even made the jewish temple for himself(or was that someone else). This of course not to mention the way he had all his relatives killed.
The bastard even stole Alexander's cuirass. You can only imagine how angry that make me.

[Kagemusha]

Id say Nero.Tryid to burn down Rome so his magnificent Palace would fit somewhere.Caligula comes in close.

[DemonArchangel]

Tiberius.

Two Words: The Minnows.

[xemitg]

I know who most of those guys were and its a hard call. All of them were pretty twisted in some way. Caligula sticks out in my mind as being expecially bad so i went with him.

[English assassin]

Heliogabalus IMHO. According to "Lives of the later Caesars" he seems to have spent literally his entire time being, err, how shall I put this, passively "unmanly". Most of the others managed to acheive something, however minor, before going mad.

Making a horse a senator or burning Rome (if indeed Nero had anything to do with that) is at least memorable, which is more than can be said for, well, you know.

It does make you wonder who actually ran the empire since it was obviously nothing whatsoever to do with the emperor. Governors and civil servants I imagine

[cunctator]

i voted for caligula.

Tiberus was not that bad at all. Suetonius was mostly interested in gossip storys.

[Dutch_guy]

Caligula , the man was so crazy , he even ordered to attack the sea...

Picture this , a full army ( with siege engines etc ) lining up on the beach, and then getting the order to assault and plunder it ( meaning collecting sea shells ) .
He had a parade in Rome for that 'victory'

Although I find Nero to be a close second...

[caesar44]

Heliogabalus IMHO. According to "Lives of the later Caesars" he seems to have spent literally his entire time being, err, how shall I put this, passively "unmanly". Most of the others managed to acheive something, however minor, before going mad.

Making a horse a senator or burning Rome (if indeed Nero had anything to do with that) is at least memorable, which is more than can be said for, well, you know.

It does make you wonder who actually ran the empire since it was obviously nothing whatsoever to do with the emperor. Governors and civil servants I imagine

"lives of the later caesars" did you meant the "historia augusta" ?

[Mikeus Caesar]

It's either Nero or Caligula. After all, Nero let Rome burn to the ground (but he didn't play a fiddle) just so that he could build a new palace, but Caligula was just stark raving mad. He attacked the sea with a full roman army for pete's sake!

[Kralizec]

I'm leaning towards Nero.

Why is Caracella a candidate? He never struck me as particulary insane, though he did kill his brother, he's chiefly remembered for extending Roman citizenship to all in the empire.

[Fragony]

Who was the one that gutted prisoners on grass because he liked the red/green color-contrast? I believe it was Nero, I love crazy people

[KSEG]

I'm leaning towards Nero.

Why is Caracella a candidate? He never struck me as particulary insane, though he did kill his brother, he's chiefly remembered for extending Roman citizenship to all in the empire.

Well, he ordered to slaughter the people in Alexandria for no particular reason.
Thousnds of egyptians was killed without any reason.